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Sex and the City

Major League Baseball playoffs are in full swing (Go, Astros) and, there are not nearly enough shows about baseball, or that even include characters that at least play baseball. Here is my list of players, and really just anyone baseball adjacent (coaches, announcers, etc.). I did not include episodes in which regular characters play a random game of baseball, but I did include guest stars who only appeared in one episode of their particular show.

1. Samuel “Mayday” Malone – Cheersplayed by Ted Danson
Sam was a relief pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, but had to retire early due to his alcoholism. Sam now owns a Boston bar. This is still one of my favorite shows of all time.

2. Edmund Gonzales – Necessary Roughnessplayed by Adam Rodriguez
Eddie is a baseball slugger who suddenly cannot hit, and seeks help from psychotherapist Dr. Dani Santino. The show usually centered around football, but I always enjoyed when they explored other sports.

3. Genevieve “Ginny” Baker – Pitchplayed by Kylie Bunbury
Ginny is a pitcher, and the first female player in Major League Baseball. She is a starting pitcher for the San Diego Padres. I am still not over the cancellation of this awesome show.

4. Joe, The New Yankee – Sex and the Cityplayed by Mark Devine
Carrie catches a fly ball at a New York Yankees game, and uses her press pass to score a date with the new Yankee. They go on a few dates but, she ultimately breaks up with Yankee Joe. Considering the show was set in NYC, which is a big sports town, I am actually surprised that the girls did not date any other professional athletes.

In honor of last weekend’s season finales of Turn: Washington’s Spies and Orphan Black (which were both fantastic), I have made a list of other favorite series finales. Most of these finales are attached to personal memories, and some are just really good episodes of television. All these shows affected me in different ways at different times in my life, but I felt a real sense of loss when they ended. There were a couple great finales this year, but I did not include them because it is likely they will make my list of Best Episodes of 2017. As long as you do not watch the videos, there should not be any big spoilers.

1. Sex and the City: I was in high school when this show started, and I used to watch it at night when my parents were in bed, because my mother would have never approved. When I got to college, it was the show that everyone watched. It ended my junior year in college and I remember watching it with my roommates at our apartment in Elon, North Carolina. I would actually have preferred for Carrie to end up with Aiden, but I was happy with the way the other three women’s stories were wrapped up.

2. Parenthood: Jason Katims knows how to do a series finales, as evidenced by Friday Night Lights also being on this list. I do not like too much ambiguity in my series finales, and this let me know that the Bravermans would all be okay. I watched this finale at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Texas surrounded by other Parenthood fans for an ATX Television Festival event. There was something cathartic being in a theater full of people, all of whom were sobbing.

3. Sons of Anarchy: I got into SOA in the middle of season three. I had put off watching it because of the subject matter, but could not ignore the critics raving about it. It also came to me at a time in my life when I needed to just completely lose myself in a world so unlike my own. When I moved to Austin, I bonded with one of my new friends over our love of Charlie Hunnam and the show, and we started watching the episodes together each week at my apartment. Obviously, I wish every character could have had a happy ending, but that is not what this show was about. It was about dealing with the consequences of the life each of them had chosen, and the actions they had taken along the way.

4. Buffy the Vampire Slayer: I do not really have a fun story for where I was when I watched the finale of this show. I actually think I was alone in my parent’s basement, which sounds kind of creepy. I got into this show late, and I don’t think I had even caught up on all the seasons yet, but wanted to watch the finale live. I did not really know what was happening at the time, but have obviously gone back and watched the entire series several times since then. This speech still brings me to tears every time I watch it: